September 2, 2015: An enzyme that mimics the digestion of termites to dissolve tree stumps, a blood testing system that’s faster and cheaper than anything on the market today, and a new device that detects eye misalignment as well as a physician. These are some of the technologies more likely to come to market because of the Innovation Fund’s most recent investment round.

When conducting research, Dr. Brian Ilfeld tries his best to be dispassionate and logical. SPR Therapeutics has made that task difficult. The Highland Hills-based company's first product could have a huge impact on the world of pain management, according to Ilfeld, a professor of anesthesiology at the University of California, San Diego.

Using its carefully guarded trade secrets, one small business is pushing new methods into the world of whiskey to address higher demand for the spirits.

Recently, someone from a local water technology company told Bryan Stubbs that the business might join the Cleveland Water Alliance. The main reason? It wants a subscription to SplashLink.com. Since last fall, the Beachwood-based website has signed up hundreds of paid subscribers, all of whom are somehow tied to the water industry.

The concept smacks of that 1966 movie, Fantastic Voyage: Cleveland startup Surgical Theater has developed a virtual reality software system that allows surgeons to journey through a patient’s body to get acquainted with the surgical site in advance of a complicated operation.

O2 Regen Tech is commercializing cost-effective, easy-to-use wound care solutions. The company’s proprietary technology is used in its initial product offering, OXAID™, as an oxygen-releasing, moist, antimicrobial dressing to promote chronic wound healing. The company received a $25,000 Innovation Fund A award in May 2015.

Website: http://www.o2regentech.com/

Micro Datastat is developing a medication dispensing system for use in hospital pharmacies. Its product releases the pharmacist to do more clinical activities while preventing medication errors. The company received a $25,000 Innovation Fund A award in May 2015.

The Innovation Fund has never been limited to Lorain County — but the nonprofit’s latest round of awards reaches all the way to Mansfield and Alliance. The fund has awarded a total of $200,000 to five young tech companies in Northeast Ohio, according to a news release.

The Lorain Community College Foundation in Ohio has even started a venture capital fund to help incubate tech companies in northeast Ohio. Recipients in the fund are required to provide an entrepreneurial educational opportunity or internship for students, faculty or staff at Lorain County Community College or one of our partnering higher education institutions.